Monday, August 31, 2009

I fell off twice today, lol.

Wrenched my right middle finger pretty good and bounced my noggin off the ground (thank goodness I wear a helmet and the ground is kinda soft). Both times it was purely my fault. He decided to try and trot today. It is cool, a bit breezy, and he was full of himself. My plan was when he tried going faster to just stick with him and let him go until he slowed down. What I did not count on is that he heads right towards a fence and turns at the last second. I over correct trying not to get flung off the outside and end up on my back on the inside of his spin. Twice. The second time I landed on the fence and blew a wire off (thankfully I didn't get zapped on top of it).

I'm fine, and oh so glad I have a short horse. LOL. He scared the crap out of himself both times. MAN, I wish I had a ROUND PEN! Or someone with more riding skill than I have to ride him through this.

Please excuse the tiny saddle. It fits him but not me, it was my daughter's when she was 7. I try to stay up off of it so it won't hurt his back.

Good start:

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Nice walk, turning both ways:

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Heading over to visit Tiff:

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The exact moment when it started to go wrong (I am pleased to see I was actually doing everything I wanted to do here, up off the saddle, just enough contact with the rein to try and direct him where I wanted him to go without trying to make him stop, riding position still looks like a sack of potatoes on crack but what ya gonna do? lol.) :

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After flopping off of him twice, getting back on to end on a good note but taking it slow since he was freaked out:

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And getting cuddles from Tiff while he calmed down so he wouldn't end the day with a bad experience in his mind:

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Note to self: When you come off a very green horse and you are in a pen where he can't get away, let go of the the dang reins, moron. That is the whole reason I wrenched my finger, i didn't let go when I came off.

The when I was fixing the broken fence wire I stuck my left hand smack dab into the middle of stinging nettle. lol. What a day.


Tiff said he never tried to buck or anything, just started to run then I flopped off when he turned. *rolls eyes*

4 comments:

  1. Ouch! Well, you looked good anyway ;-) Can't give any advice, not a trainer either. Keep wearing that helmet...

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  2. hehehe, Oh, the helmet is my new best friend. My finger looks like I had a sausage grafted on to my hand during the night but aside from being stiff it doesn't bother me much. I have a few bruises popping up now too, in places I didn't realize got bumped. *chuckle*

    I know what I need to do but in the moment my brain just reacts out of habit. I NEED to just hang on and let him go until he realizes he is fine THEN work at directing him around. Instead I instinctively try to control it and that makes him feel trapped so he keeps going. But we ended with a good walk around without any more foolishness on either of our parts.

    I'm going to be going back to more ground work with just a daily climb up on him for a bit, at least until the bruises fade, haha!

    He has been EXCEPTIONALLY affectionate today. I told him it was ok, my bad, and I love him just as much as ever. lol.

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  3. My trainer tells me that over 90% of the falls we take as riders its because WE did something wrong, not our horses. I believe her. Everytime I've been dumped its because I did something stupid. It's determining what that stupid thing was and trying not to do it again that's the hard part.

    Glad *he's* ok! *chuckle*

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  4. That is actually the funny thing, Jen... I knew as I was doing it that it was the wrong thing to do. But my body ignored my brain. lol. Body said, "When a horse is doing something you don't want it to do, make it stop." and brain said, "Moron, he doesn't know any better, just ride it out." then my body said, "Ouch, the ground is hard." lol.

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